Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism was the system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics, music and astronomy. Pythagoreanism originated in the 5th century BC and greatly influenced platonism and the concept of vegetarianism. It was also the first use of the word philosophy. It is most commonly known for its heavy focus on mathematics, including the belief that math is the fundamental substance of reality. Although its ethics teachings are mostly lost, and there is not much within it to tie to any particular alignment, it interestingly has a cosmology that closely parallels information given in the digital devil saga duology and record breaker. According to tradition, pythagoreanism developed at some point into two separate schools of thought: Sub schools of Pythagoreanism The Mathēmatikoi or "learners" were supposed to have extended and developed the more mathematical and scientific work begun by Pythagoras. The mathēmatikoi did think that the akousmatikoi were Pythagorean, but felt that their own group was more representative of Pythagoras. The Akousmatikoi or "listeners" focused on the more religious and ritualistic aspects of his teachings: they claimed that the mathēmatikoi were not genuinely Pythagorean, but followers of the "renegade" Pythagorean Hippasus. The term pythagoreanism is obviously known most commonly for the pythagorean theorem, since the pythagoreans worked closely with math, and pythagoras may have been the first one who proved the theorem, although it was known of before his time. Metaphysics Cosmic Order Numbers. The pythagoreans believed that the entire universe was composed of numbers, and thus had a universal sacred order or harmony that could be discovered and understood by coming to understand mathematical truths, which they saw as the fundamental reality that the universe is ontologically made of. As in reality being composed of literal numbers. Thus, much of their work was in mathematics, and they made much progress in that area, (and obviously are where the pythagorean theorem comes from) as well as being the first people who came to the idea that physics could be explained mathematically. Their mysticism likewise often revolved around this idea of universal or mathematical order, though unfortunately there are not many sources remaining detailing it concretely. Music was seen as a concept related to math, or even an audible expression of mathematical properties, and so work in music was done by them as well. They considered numbers so important that the Pythagorean Hippasus is said to have been expelled from the brotherhood, and according to some sources even drowned, because he discovered irrational numbers. A concept which they believed was false / incoherent, due to not being able to be expressed with integers and so which must not be taught. This concept interestingly ties to Digital evil saga 2. In digital devil saga, they talk about how the entire universe, not just the simulation from the first game, but the “real” one as well is made out of data. Data in the sense we think of it usually relates to computers, and so is expressed with binary. Which makes it similar in concept to the Pythagorean concept of numbers composing all reality. In fact, even some modern interpretations of physics point out that what we think of as tangible ultimately amounts or reduces to more intangible things, and thus may ultimately be more abstract than one imagines, and so perhaps describable as data. Some forms of structuralism likewise say similar things. Even if this wouldn't necessarily be the same as “numbers” per say. (Some extreme forms do think everything is literally a mathematical structure though.) Whether this association was intentional is obviously far more sketchy than some other associations. It may be coincidental. But pythagoreanism does resemble DDS in many ways. Musica universalis (lit. universal music, or music of the spheres) or Harmony of the Spheres is a concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—as a form of music. This "music" is not usually thought to be literally audible, but a harmonic and/or mathematical and/or religious concept. The Music of the Spheres incorporates the metaphysical principle that mathematical relationships express qualities or "tones" of energy which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds – all connected within a pattern of proportion. Pythagoras first identified that the pitch of a musical note is in proportion to the length of the string that produces it, and that intervals between harmonious sound frequencies form simple numerical ratios. In a theory known as the Harmony of the Spheres, Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets all emit their own unique hum (orbital resonance) based on their orbital revolution, and that the quality of life on Earth reflects the tenor of celestial sounds which are physically imperceptible to the human ear. Gods Monad, “The One” or ”'without '''division” '''deriving from the greek words for one, unit, or alone, was a term for Divinity or the first being, or the totality of all beings. It was a word for the ultimate infinite point or source of reality from which all other things flowed, and was identified with the number one. (or sometimes infinity). Flow meaning quite literally, since pythagoreanism posited the universe as literally built out of numbers. From the monad evolved the dyad; (or duality), from it numbers; from numbers, points; then lines, two-dimensional entities, three-dimensional entities, bodies, culminating in the four elements earth, water, fire and air, from which the rest of our world is built up. The monad was not seen as sentient although it was seen as the ultimate in divinity. And so obviously parallels the great will in this way. Which you'll note actually is a common theme in many things. A form of more abstract divinity above more tangible ones, with the abstract one often not really being independently sentient at all. Note that if you want to make the dds association, you can also contrast parts of pythagoreanism with hinduism, and their in game expressions. Monad has since become a term for anything resembling concepts such as aristotle's unmoved mover, or any self-existing immovable ultimate reality from which other things flowed. In gnosticism it became a term for the highest divinity, but the gnostics were criticized by pythagoreans for taking out the mathematical aspects of the concept. '''Gods'. Although to pythagoras, the monad was the true source of all divinity and ultimate pantheistic reality that the universal mathematical order flowed from, he did also believe in the traditional polytheistic gods, of which Zeus was the head. They were also known to rise early to worship the sun, as extension of order in nature in general. General Cosmology Transmigration of souls was the Pythagorean term for reincarnation of human souls after death into new bodies. This is an idea it seems to have taken in from orphism, a religion which existed at that time. They believed they could be reborn not only as animals, or in the underworld, but even be born on the rank of the gods, with different stations achievable based on one's life. It is believed that this also led them to believe in equality of the sexes, since they believed that souls might be born as one or the other interchangeably, and so the person themselves were not distinguished by it. Interestingly, since they also believed in reincarnation dds may have been inspired by them as a side to its main Hindu inspirations. Wheel of Birth. The Pythagoreans believed that a release from the "wheel of birth" was possible through a life of philosophy and contemplation. What appears to not be clear due to lack of primary sources is whether they believed reaching the level of the gods was itself the final goal, and the freedom, or whether that was merely another step, and one could become one with the monad and be beyond even the realm of the gods. And whether or not your stay with the gods was permanent. Void to pythagoreans was a thing seen as the existence of emptiness between two things, which needs to be funneled into them to distinguish things from eachother. It it enters the heaven from the unlimited breath which, so to speak, breathes in void. The void distinguishes the natures of things, since it is the thing that separates and distinguishes the successive terms in a series. This happens in the first case of numbers; for the void distinguishes their nature, and by extension this relates to the same void which distinguishes objects from eachother in the natural world. In other words, the monad in the world was infinite and limitless and without distinction, and empty spaces need to exist to create distinction. Central Fire, "Watch-tower of '''Zeus" or "Hearth-altar of the universe." At the center of the Universe is a central fire, around which the Earth, Sun, Moon and planets revolve uniformly. The earth revolves around the central fire, but its same face always faces away from it, so the people on the surface never see it. (alternately, since no mention was made of earth's shape, perhaps there was another continent which did. This shows up in later Pythagorean beliefs.) As the name implies, this was often also seen as the home of zeus and the other gods. Interestingly enough, there is once again a parallel to DDS2. Because although they did not identify the central tower as the sun directly, its description closely parallels a kind of super sun. And being the home of the gods is similar to Go being the sun in DDS2. There is no indication of this being intentional however. Antichthon or counter earth was a planet of equal size and shape as earth, which was posited to be on the other side of the central fire in the same orbit as earth, so that it was never visible. Alternately, some interpretations may have posited it as between earth and the central fire. Some said that this was put there by zeus to prevent humans looking at the throne of zeus directly. Symbols The tetractys or tetrad, is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row, which is the geometrical representation of the fourth triangular number. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, as it contained within it all the representations from monad to dyad all the way to the perfect number at 10. A prayer of the Pythagoreans shows the importance of the Tetractys (sometimes called the "Mystic Tetrad"), as the prayer was addressed to it. Since this represents all numbers, it was meant to represent their relation to an generation of the world as a whole, and its mathematically based structures. The Pentagram is the five pointed star made of five lines, with the lines crossing through eachother forming a pentagon in the middle. This was used by the pythagoreans sometimes including letters at the ends of the points, usually to represent humans, as not only were humans extended in the shape of a five pointed star to him. (Counting each limb as a point) Likewise, it represented the five elements that composed man, being fire, water, air, earth, and , and psyche. (energy, fluid, breath, matter, and mind; also liquid, gas, solid, plasma, and aethyr, or spirit) The Pythagoreans held the pentacle sacred to Hygeia, the Goddess of healing, whose name (HGIEiA) was an anagram in Greek for the elements water, earth, spirit, fire, and air. Ethics Pythagorean ethics comes from the drawing out of implications for intentional behavior from one's view of the basic structure of being: if being itself is a certain way, then it follows that one should live in a certain way based on the order of the world. And they thought that thus at least in concept, even ethics could be explained mathematically. Unfortunately, much of its work is lost, including that of its ethical theory which leaves rather less to go on than one can hope for. Not much is known about their ethics other than that they advocated vegetarianism, and were against animal cruelty. This was in part based on their idea of reincarnations, thinking animals were continuous with humans, and were reincarnations of them. The term pythagorean diet was actually used up until the coining of the word vegetarian in the last few hundred years.